Edward de Vere

In the first edition of Michael Hart's book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History (in 1978) William Shakespeare is mentioned but in the second edition the book lists only Edward de Vere as "William Shakespeare".

Not only are we made aware that the political topography of the play [Hamlet] is identical with the biographical realities of Edward de Vere's life, but the play in fact becomes an imaginative projection of exactly what de Vere would have done as the pseudonymous author of the Shakespeare corpus, which was to use his knowledge of the inner machinery of court life to try to expose its corruption. - Mark Anderson quoting Roger Stritmatter

Those who believe de Vere was Shakespeare must accept an improbable hoax, a conspiracy of silence involving, among others, Queen Elizabeth herself. Those who side with the Stratford man [Shakespeare] must believe in miracles. - Al Austin

In the work of the greatest geniuses, humble beginnings will reveal themselves somewhere but one cannot trace the slightest sign of them in Shakespeare... Whoever wrote [Shakespeare] had an aristocratic attitude. - Charlie Chaplin

I no longer believe that... the actor from Stratford was the author of the works that have been ascribed to him. Since reading Shakespeare Identified by J. Thomas Looney, I am almost convinced that the assumed name conceals the personality of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford... The man of Stratford seems to have nothing at all to justify his claim, whereas Oxford has almost everything. - Sigmund Freud in 1937

I agreed to put my name to a school of thought that maintains that the earl [17th Earl of Oxford], Edward de Vere, was the author of the plays. ... Where did this Shakespeare come from? ... I'm pretty convinced our playwright wasn't that fellow. This opinion is very unpopular with the good burghers of Stratford, I realize, but they also make their living on the legend of Shakespeare's local origins. I don't think it was him. - Sir Derek Jacobi

Did Edward de Vere write Shakespeare's plays and poems? Yes. In recent studies, scholars have come to the conclusion that Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was the mastermind behind the greatest sonnets and plays of the Elizabethan Age. ... Based on the evidence it is highly probable that Edward de Vere wrote the sonnets; however, according to Charlton Ogburn, a famous critic and author, the Shakespeare controversy is "the greatest literary mystery of all time." - John Koubaroulis

The strange, difficult, contradictory man who emerges as the real Shakespeare, Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, is not just plausible but fascinating and wholly believable. It is hard to imagine anyone who reads the book [The Mysterious William Shakespeare] with an open mind ever seeing Shakespeare or his works in the same way again. - David McCullough.

How could anybody have thought that a man who could barely sign his name was the greatest writer in the English language? - Charlton Ogburn in The Mystery of William Shakespeare

There is no evidence that [Shakespeare] ever had a day of schooling or wrote anything but six signatures of unpracticed penmanship. His parents, siblings, wife and children were illiterate except that one of his daughters could, like her father, sign her name. He never, as far as is known, claimed to have written any of the works later attributed to him, had no part in their publication and -... made no mention of them in his will and showed no interest in their survival. He is not known ever to have owned a book. ... While he was alive, no one we know of ever suggested that he was the dramatist or a writer of any kind. - Charlton Ogburn

As Orson Welles remarked, there are far too many 'coincidences' favoring Oxford's authorship to explain away. And no similar details connect the Shakespeare works to the life of William of Stratford. - Joseph Sobran

I think Oxford wrote Shakespeare. If you don't agree, there are some awfully funny coincidences to explain away... - Orson Welles

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